Good
news: four Christian feature films were released in major theaters
four weeks in a row, one after another, in the first quarter of
2001.
The not-so-good news is that a few in the secular
press try to devalue these redemptive movies by smearing them with
the ephemeral claim that they lack production quality.
This is not so. Looking at any of these movies,
THE AMATI GIRLS, which won the Heartland Film Festival, THE
CHAMPION, LEFT BEHIND, or THE ROAD TO REDEMPTION, they have high
production quality, considering their low budgets.
What the secular press is attacking, of course, is
the fact that these are major movies made by Christians with
Christian messages. Messages that the secular press has been taught
to hate by the modern cynics and jaded, pseudo-intellectuals in our
midst.
Regrettably, too many "sheeple" have
bought the lie, and so, they think Christian movies are inferior.
That is definitely not the case.
MOVIEGUIDE® reviews 270-290 movies every year,
every movie that is nationally released at the box office. Most of
these movies, such as Sylvester Stallone’s GET CARTER, are
mediocre at best. There are a lot of pathetic movies with bad
production quality with big stars in it, and yet, we don’t hear
the press critiquing their production quality. Of course, there are
exceptions. For instance, Roger Ebert said, once upon a time long
ago (in a galaxy far, far away, apparently) that 90% of the movies
he sees are poorly made.
Orthodox Jewish movie critic Michael Medved says
that his former TV co-reviewer Jeffrey Lions confided to him just
before they went on air to critique THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
that he (Jeffrey) knew it was a poorly produced movie, but "we
have to stand together against the Christian fundamentalists, so we
need to give it a good review." Although Michael refused to go
along with this nasty conspiracy to attack the Christian faith, this
type of "us versus the Christians" bigotry occurs all too
often amongst secular reviewers.
Furthermore, the secular press says things about
Christian movies which are just not true. The fact of the matter is
that Christians have made great films over the years, beginning with
the very earliest years of moviemaking. For instance, the great
Cecil B. DeMille made the magnificent KING OF KINGS in 1927-and, he
had the production crew and cast pray every morning before they shot
any film! Outside of the Hollywood club, the Billy Graham
Evangelical Association has produced many excellent movies,
including THE HIDING PLACE which Rabbi Daniel Lapin says is his
favorite holocaust movie.
Therefore, are Christian movies inferior?
No, not in the least. Some of them are excellent.
Most of them, because they don’t get up to bat that often, are in
the mid-range. But even so, these movies, by and large, are much
better than many of the independent movies we review every year,
including some of the most highly-touted independent movies that the
secular press likes to drool over, such as the end-of-the-year Oscar
contender YOU CAN COUNT ON ME. (That movie was a solid three-star
film, but nowhere near as great as many critics tried to make their
readers believe.)
So, I urge believers not to be "sheeple,"
but to be the people of God. Don’t buy the cynical, jaded lie
which dismisses all Christian productions. Stand behind the good
productions that are coming out of the Christian community and stop
undermining those who are obeying Jesus’ command to be herald the
Good News to the people in the market place of ideas!
